The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) and International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in 2015 agreed for implementation of the trans-boundary landscape project titled ‘REDD+ Himalaya: Developing and using experience in implementing REDD+ in the Himalaya’ in Hindu Kush Himalayan part of India. The project mainly focused on capacity building, technology sharing and knowledge dissemination on REDD+ through South-South cooperation.
Keeping in view the significant contribution made by ICFRE, the REDD+ Himalaya Project has been further extended up to July 2020. In this regard, an addendum to the letter of agreement for extension of the project was signed between ICFRE director general Suresh Gairola and ICIMOD director general David Molden at ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Gairola informed that ICFRE will strengthen the State REDD+ Cells of State Forest Departments of the Indian Himalayan States, develop the State REDD+ Action Plans for the States of Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim, and also study the potential of bamboo for scoping in REDD+ implementation during this period. The project is supported by the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany International Climate Initiative which was implemented in four Hindu Kush Himalayan Countries viz-a-viz Bhutan, India, Myanmar and Nepal.
ICFRE has successfully implemented all the project activities and generated various knowledge products on REDD+. State REDD+ Action Plans for the states of Mizoram and Uttarakhand have also been developed.
A number of capacity building programmes and workshops have been organised for enhancing the capacity of the State Forest Departments, research organisation, universities, local communities and other stakeholders for implementation of REDD+ activities. This project has created an enabling environment for implementation of REDD+ readiness activities in India and also provide support to ICFRE for preparation of National REDD+ Strategy 2018. ICIMOD has appreciated the ICFRE partnership for successful completion of the project activities and bringing out a number of outstanding publications on REDD+.
It is pertinent to mention that reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries and role of conservation of forest carbon stocks, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks is collectively known as REDD+ which is one of the climate change mitigation option in forest sector.
